nVidia GTX680 Review

Batman Arkham City

With a hefty dose of PhysX underneath the hood we would expect the GTX680 to rule the roost in Batman Arkham City and so it proves. At stock things are tight but once the GTX680 is overclocked it really moves ahead. However it's worth noting that Batman AC isn't the most reliable test, as otherwise we could argue that the HD7950 is equal to it.

Wow that is very close, much closer than the TT review thank god. For me vram is a big issue and I don't want to be getting less than 2.5gb. The TT review was making me a little nervous. Thankfully the 7970 is still holding its own and hopefully a few £ cheaper over the coming days.

So Nvidia and AMD going toe to toe? I like the sounds of that, because it should lead to lower prices from both sides =D

Eventually it might, but I do not think it will happen anytime soon. In the Netherlands, you can get a reference HIS HD7970 for €450. That's the cheapest 7970 available. The cheapest GTX680 at this moment is €520. I do expect the GTX680 to drop a little seeing as it's only just been released, but the 7970 will probably be a bit cheaper, which is right in line with the performance it offers. Also, NVIDIA haven't released their other GTX6xx cards yet. The moment they do is the moment I expect price drops to occur.

Great review as always tinytomlogan! I really enjoyed it. I'm planning to sell my GTX 570 to buy a GTX 680. Is my AMD Phenom II X4 945 enough to handle one of these beasts? Or it would be a "not so smart upgrade" to do, and I need to change all my pc before buying a GTX 680?

Good review as always and i'm also glad that they are so evenly matched as well because all this Nvidia/AMD fanboyism and being bias does my head right in.

This guy on another forum said it best, Click "spoiler" to see the quote

[spoiler]I really don't get all of this brand loyalty/finger pointing and reason to get upset over a piece of silicon... The charts say it all, the 7970 wins some and the 680 wins some. It is up to the consumer to decide which card is better for them given their uses and what games they play. The 680 beats the 7970 in Skyrim and BF3 according to the charts, so that's the card I'm going to get.

You all are acting like religious fanatics that claim their way of thinking is the only right way. Why can't both cards just be good at what they're good at? Honestly, why does it matter if one card is better at some benchmarks than the other? If you bought the 7970, then you knew fully well that the 680 was around the corner. Should you get upset when it performs better than the 7970 at some applications? No. You recover your losses and move on.

The amount of bickering between hardcore fans of both sides lately does my head in. It's the same on all of the threads with AMD vs Intel, AMD vs Nvidia, Mech vs Dome keyboards, air vs water cooling, PS3 vs 360, Console vs PC, Apple vs Microsoft, Apple vs anything, or Notebook vs Tablets. What have any of these companies given you that has made you want to so vehemently defend them? They make products, you buy them. Make smart purchases and live with the consequences.[/spoiler]

Personally, I would buy the 680 over the 7970 because of it being quieter and using less power, but, if AMD dropped the price of the 7970 so it was coming in at £50 less (not going to happen, just sayin) I would buy the 7970 because it would be the better bang for the buck. Because of them being so evenly matched though, I don't see any major price drops for the 7000 series coming, but maybe for the 6000 series.

For the folding guys, I don't know how true this is but it is what I have read, Nvidia have not increased the direct compute power on the 680 and it's still around the same as a 580. As I said though I don't know how true that is, it's just what I have read.

Anyway, that's just one benchmark. I've read tonnes of professional reviews, and in almost all of them the GTX680 is slightly better than the 7970. Doesn't really matter though, both are awesome cards.

as soon as the "brands" release their modded versions of the 680, AMD will be the underdog (yet again)

this is only Day1...

amd-fanboys, make the most of this, you will not get a second chance soon

I think you need to look at the benches and watch Tom's review again, they are evenly matched, no one is the underdog. When the "brands" come out they will be evenly matched with the 7970 brands, you may also want to look at the MSI 7970 Lightning reviews as well.

This is not the right attitude, it should be about buying the best card for your money not brand loyalty, and whether you buy the 7970 or the 680 it doesn't really make much of a difference

1) they are evenly matched

2) the games where the 680 is better, or vice versa with the 7970, the difference is over the level where you wouldn't physically notice the difference. So, yet again, it doesn't really make a difference which one you have.*

Anyway, that's just one benchmark. I've read tonnes of professional reviews, and in almost all of them the GTX680 is slightly better than the 7970. Doesn't really matter though, both are awesome cards.

Not mine, a friend on OcUK.

These are real world benches, as we're not in Nvidias or AMDs pocket, and are clocking to the max on the latest drivers.

At stock the 680 edges out the 7970 because of dynamic overclocking, but at max they're either the same or 1 is beating the other, depending on game/bench.

as soon as the "brands" release their modded versions of the 680, AMD will be the underdog (yet again)

this is only Day1...

amd-fanboys, make the most of this, you will not get a second chance soon

I don't think that is going to make any difference to a lot of people here who overclocked their cards? The AMD overclocks better so I'm not sure how you have come to this conclusion? Ha, stop trying to cause a fight between fan bases after Sieb's post! Anyone would think you were trolling as an admin !

Although the cards perform on average almost identically (which I think is testament to AMD given the release dates, but offset by the 20-30w extra power draw) I still think there is a pretty clear case for picking one over the other, from my perspective, depending on the situation and excluding price/power consumption.

If you play beyond 1080p then the AMD's extra vram will probably be an advantage (as DB006's benches suggest) and also if you use 3d technology.

Otherwise, the 680 is arguably better at stock but the AMD catches and often beats it under overclocking.

Great review! Sooooooo nice to see a review take the time to both use a large test suite AND compare the overclocked performance of this card vs the overclocked 7970.

The vast majority of sites (especially the major ones) I've seen so far both use a more limited test suite and COMPLETELY IGNORE the overclocking performance of the two cards. They then arrive at the conclusion "lol 7970 is crap the 680 dominates it".

Nice to see that some people can't be bought off by nVidia and take a fully-orbed look at the cards. Just found out about OC3D a few months ago and it has fast become my favorite tech site (and I'm not even in the UK!). Keep up the outstanding work guys

For the F@H guys, it seems that the 680 is meant as a gaming card (like the 560 Ti) rather than a gaming/compute card (like the 580).

Give the teeny tiny die size (for Nvidia), low power draw and 12 pin power, I'm expecting a 685 along quite soon. This seems to be Nvidia trying to get double money out of the 'must have best NOW' people.

What I'm interested in and have yet to find is whether Nvidia have caught up in multi-monitor support. 4 screens per card is one thing, but do they have to be the same resolution, can they be moved around 'virtually' and are name tags going to be over the right object or wander 400px off to the side??

Also, what's the 680 like for overclocking when watercooled, given temps are a major factor in turboing?

For the F@H guys, it seems that the 680 is meant as a gaming card (like the 560 Ti) rather than a gaming/compute card (like the 580).

Give the teeny tiny die size (for Nvidia), low power draw and 12 pin power, I'm expecting a 685 along quite soon. This seems to be Nvidia trying to get double money out of the 'must have best NOW' people.

What I'm interested in and have yet to find is whether Nvidia have caught up in multi-monitor support. 4 screens per card is one thing, but do they have to be the same resolution, can they be moved around 'virtually' and are name tags going to be over the right object or wander 400px off to the side??

Also, what's the 680 like for overclocking when watercooled, given temps are a major factor in turboing?

My fear is that this was being designed as the 660 Ti, but found AMD didn't push performance as high as they planned for, so have released their mid range card as the high end, with the planned top end card being delayed a few months.

If that's what they're doing, it's understandable from a short term money making position, but it would certainly put me off them (if I had the money to buy right now).

My fear is that this was being designed as the 660 Ti, but found AMD didn't push performance as high as they planned for, so have released their mid range card as the high end, with the planned top end card being delayed a few months.

If that's what they're doing, it's understandable from a short term money making position, but it would certainly put me off them (if I had the money to buy right now).

I have a 680 coming in the mail, a new card coming out isn't going to help me . At least there is always EVGA step-up.

Can we please remove the Overkill3D values from the main graphs because they make it difficult to compare the cards that are comparable. At least remove the Mars 2 SLI every one knows that will be way more powerful than a single card GPU no SLI.

It's Nvidia dude, they'll have a compute card out soon enough (that's not tesla/quadro).My fear is that this was being designed as the 660 Ti, but found AMD didn't push performance as high as they planned for, so have released their mid range card as the high end, with the planned top end card being delayed a few months.If that's what they're doing, it's understandable from a short term money making position, but it would certainly put me off them (if I had the money to buy right now).

To be honest I think that may be exactly it. There are the pre-soldered mounts for another power connector, after all... :/.

The rumoured silicone delays may have also had a hand in this - the GK110 is supposed to be significantly larger than the GK104, so maybe they had yield issues there.

This may be why there was such a delay with the release of the part - remember that Kepler was supposed to be released a few months ago, after all!

Honestly I don't think I'll be buying this. I currently have two 6970s @950/1500 in Crossfire and they are more than enough to get 60+ FPS in any game I throw at them with maxed out graphics. nvidia has implemented some really nice technologies, but there isn't enough performance gain for me to justify spending 1000 bucks in getting 680s in SLI just like there wasn't enough performance gain with the 7970s for me to justify spending that money. I'll wait until the GK110 comes out and maybe upgrade then, but for now it seems completely unecessary.

I'm a bit dissapointed just a gtx 580, with mild performance boost, and low power draw. But I'm with Tom. It seems fishy that this is spose to be the big hoss of gtx 6xx series and it's just slighty faster than the 580.

Still happy it did not eat my 7970 for breakfast haha, the videoram is a really big concern of mine.... I am curious how it handles 5760*1080 BF3 gaming, I find I can't run ultra on my OC'ed 7970 but high runs fine... I'll wait a bit for prices to drop then get another 7970 and overclock that boy to its limit as well ^^

I honestly can't believe this is the replacement for the 580! It has way cooler features and I like where they are going with it, but it seems Nvidia releases what they had to to keep use happy and just barly steal the crown from AMD.(which is debatable)

Most reviewers are calling the 680 the new king, but with a features gone(compute). This keeps AMD in some of our hearts because we get basiclly the same performance(with better compute) for a little more money.

Tom called them basically the same, buy what you want, you have love his honesty and unbiased opinion. For most of us this would seem 100% true, but I think he is right, something is fishy with the 680.

The 580 was a true king of it's time! Fast and powerful, when needed, cool and quiet when not. It had so much going fot it nothing could touch it, which put an instant target on its back!!! To beat it you needed dual GPU,x-fire, or SLI, but your power bill went way up, and your wallet was lighter. To use less power or be cheaper, it was hard to beat. So I gotta give props to the old King....because it will be the mark from which all will be measured from ,for a while, anyway....

580 vs 680 the 680 wins in almost every way except it's computing, the 580 destroys it....folders, wait.. when the price drops on the 580s buy them all up, or buy used 580s...there will be alot of them soon.

The reason has to be twice the CUDA cores at a higher clock for $500 would kill off the TESLA/QUADRO card sales, when the 680 could almost do what a $2000 card could do..a sly business move for Nvidia!!

I think they are being smart though, release the 600 series now, minus compute at current 500 series prices and 90% of us wouldn't be the wiser, because It's benchmarks and game performance is better than the 580, than once they got all our money and sales start droping, the all new 700 series!!!(aka.600 series with compute for alot more money). For some this would be a good thing, if you don't need compute buy the cheaper 600 gaming cards, but bad for those that want it, because I'm sure you will be forced to pay a higher price for it. Just another notch inbetween type of cards, from workstation cards. High end gamming and ultra class consumer cards.

I think thats why there is extra solder points on the cards for different PCI-E power. There is clearly a spot for a 8 pin next to the top 6 pin, which the higher end boards may need when they boost compute performance, add a second GPU, or just maybe its there for a killer overclocking single slot water cooled configuation.... who knows.

7970 vs 680 not so clear....

gaming- buy the card that performs better in the games you play at the price you can afford.

overclocking- I think the 680 will be way better for people who don't mess about with their video cards that much because it basically has INTEL Speed Step, when it's loaded down(all cores active) it runs at "stock clock", but if you throw an old game that is less demanding(lesser cores active) it overclocks itself for better performance.

The 7970 will be better for those who like messing with their card overclocks, I can see where GPU Boost would confuse or piss off people trying to overclock the 680.

Power-the 680, across the board uses less power. Where it beats the 7970 and has lower power, it is the clear watts/performance winner. In cases where the 7970 beats the 680, but the 680 still uses lower power, it's bascically a tie, you have to choose based on other things.

One place where the 7970 wins out,and it affects alot of us,is Idle power!! AMD cards have zero core(the thing keeping Tom from Quad x-fire, till he got it sorted). If you sit in front your computer messing with it all the time, it doesn't matter, but if you leave your machine on all the time or walk away from it alot, the AMD cards will sense when your monitor turns off and cut it's core power to only a few watts.

Basicaly I see this as the same thing:

Nvidia=higher base clock and overclocks when needed, always using less power.

AMD=needs more power to do the same work but underclocks when not needed, to make up for it's power wasteing habits.

kinda sounds familiar...dosen't it?

Price=let the battle begin.. so WE can win alittle!!

personally, I'm kinda steering away from the 680, until I see where they go next. I can see alot of you with single 580 or even 570s switching to 680s for a small bump in performance(losing compute), than AMD responds with a 7990 single GPU card to regain the crown , and Nvidia releases a 685,690, and a 695, leaving the people who just bought a new 680 with a mid grade card??? but ofcorse this will force the price down and you can just pick up one or two more for 2 or 3 way SLI.

I went the expensive single GPU route first time around, this time I went with 2 cheaper cards in SLI(although they cost more than one single card they also beat it peformance wise), they are brand new, so I'm not upgradeing till I see whats next.

I'm interested to see what the partners will do with the non-referance boards, Imagine what ASUS could do if the GPU Boost,base clock, and spread are all adjustable in the BIOS....EPU and TPU switchs on video cards??maybe??

The 580 was a true king of it's time! Fast and powerful, when needed, cool and quiet when not. It had so much going fot it nothing could touch it, which put an instant target on its back!!! To beat it you needed dual GPU,x-fire, or SLI, but your power bill went way up, and your wallet was lighter. To use less power or be cheaper, it was hard to beat. So I gotta give props to the old King....because it will be the mark from which all will be measured from ,for a while, anyway....

580 vs 680 the 680 wins in almost every way except it's computing, the 580 destroys it....folders, wait.. when the price drops on the 580s buy them all up, or buy used 580s...there will be alot of them soon.

The reason has to be twice the CUDA cores at a higher clock for $500 would kill off the TESLA/QUADRO card sales, when the 680 could almost do what a $2000 card could do..a sly business move for Nvidia!!

I think they are being smart though, release the 600 series now, minus compute at current 500 series prices and 90% of us wouldn't be the wiser, because It's benchmarks and game performance is better than the 580, than once they got all our money and sales start droping, the all new 700 series!!!(aka.600 series with compute for alot more money). For some this would be a good thing, if you don't need compute buy the cheaper 600 gaming cards, but bad for those that want it, because I'm sure you will be forced to pay a higher price for it. Just another notch inbetween type of cards, from workstation cards. High end gamming and ultra class consumer cards.

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